Criminals are using a fake page imitating the Federal Government's Brasil sem Bets portal to capture the CPF numbers (Brazilian taxpayer IDs) of people trying to recover money left on betting platforms after the ban.
The clone copies the government's visual identity and shows the ‘gov.br’ address in its header, as does the original Government website, but the link actually ends in ".org".
Users are asked to enter their CPF to "check available amounts," after which the page shows a sum supposedly tied to that document. The figures are randomly generated and match no real balance and no payment is made.
The official portal has no CPF lookup field and offers no direct withdrawals. The Government advises users to check the web address, never enter a CPF on pages promising to locate balances, and never pay fees, since refunds carry no charge.
Under the refund timetable set after the ban, manual withdrawals closed at 11:59pm on October 5. Between October 5 and 7, operators sent banks the balances linked to each bettor's CPF, and from October 9 to 14 the banks made automatic refunds.
Since October 14, bettors who haven't received their money are handled by Caixa Econômica Federal, the state-owned bank.
"Now, as the consumer no longer has the legalized website to help them identify which one is real and which one is fake, this scam has been growing," said Carlos Lima, President of the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming (IBJR), on the matter.
Nine Brazilian trade associations representing the sports betting sector, including IBJR, have published a joint statement defending the sector
